Where’s Your Inspirational Notebook?

December 8, 2009 at 1:38 pm mbutler22 Leave a comment

Write. Write often. And write by hand. Fuel your creativity through the jotting of tidbits seen, overheard, or simply thought into a notebook — any kind of notebook — your inspiration notebook.

An inspiration notebook is not a journal and does not contain complaints or venting. Rather, it’s a gathering place of ideas — the capturing of life’s remnants and the collection of sights, sounds and smells of the world around you. It is a catchall of discovered words and phrases, borrowed lines, and observed moments, which indulge the imagination and inspire thought — an eclectic collage of life observed.

Fill your notebook with overheard snippets of passer-bys … “You know what that means don’t you? We are in love.” Jot down personal reminders of the changing seasons and altering times. Describe the person across from you on the bus that looks like he could be one of your characters. Glue in photos, postcards, a poem, or advertisement that grabs you. Scatter names, dates and quotes. Detail your location, whether you are at a park or in the grocery store to further understand your setting. Listen to any background noise and add little pieces. Include your list of books to read and movies to watch. Practice writing exercises and sketch ideas.

As you harvest little inspirations, your notebook is also a place for memory. Recall tender moments and uncover the driving feeling. Remember the spiral shape of grandma’s staircase and how the center curve was the perfect location to set up the plastic figures ranging from animals to green army men just in case they needed to retreat up or down the mountain. Your notebook will keep you in touch with your inner resources. Write close to your heart about topics that fascinate you.

Use your notebook to look out at the world, noticing and listening to the stories separate from your own. Deliberate awareness encourages artistic sensibilities. It allows you to see the gems in small moments that radiate all around us. Understanding life and depths outside of your own will embrace the realness of spirit and give clarity to your thoughts.

Capturing inspirations and memories is a way to keepsake life and is the simplest means of heightening your craft. Writers are collectors, and your inspirational notebook becomes a source for your writing — a collection of life and a reminder to live as a writer, and to embrace the daily proof that the world is complex, heartrending and completely delightful.

- Melissa

Entry filed under: Writing. Tags: inspirational notebook, Writing, writing exercise, writing notebook.

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